A couple of reasons why you're 1600 and bad

Overview:
-Introduction
-Basic Laning and not being a twat
-Positioning and chasing
-MAP-FREAKING-AWARENESS
-Pushing
-Item Choices
-The 'Tank' Issue
-Tunnel Vision
-Conceding early and team composition
-You have a brain, use it

Introduction:
If you're wondering why you're stuck in 1600 bracket and cannot seem to improve this is the 'guide' for you. Although it's actually more of a selection of tips and tricks i used to reach 1800 once, but nevertheless it should give you a general idea of what you're doing wrong.

Laning:
A lot of 1600's have no laning sense, by this i mean taking their time to look at the opposing teams lineup, their own lineup and which lane is strongest. If you're going against a lane you know is stronger than your own then you goddamn play more passive than if you have one of equal or stronger value. One thing to note is that if one of the opposing heroes leave the lane you JUMP the other ****er, you don't sit by twidling your thumbs and playing like a 1400. You have to take advantage of the other teams screwups, if you dont do this then having a positive impact on the game becomes much harder. If the issue is that you're either, A:Solo or B: losing your lane LEAVE the lane. Don't just sit there feeding them, if you have a stun or slow and roam mid you're near garuanteed a kill in the 16-1700's, use their lack of map awareness to YOUR advantage.

Positioning and Chasing:
This is probably the biggest issue that 1600s have, I remember when i was 1730 and suddenly it happened; the realization of positioning as a supporting Witch Slayer. It came to me like a lightbulb, after I stunned I...GASP WALKED BACK!! I know!! It seems crazy, but this enabled to outmaneuver the opposing team in a way called positioning. Positioning, is at least to me, the knowledge of constantly baiting the opponent psycologically to screw up, to cause them to overextend in such a way that you can land ur abilities/auto attack and kill them. If you're a support forget the concept of "I'm useless I just use my spells and die" you're super important especially if you have a carry on your team, you NEED to be alive and continually use your spells for your carry to autoattack them, this is achieved by using your spells and then walking backwards towards safer territory. It is also achieved by for example intiating later on, when I was 1600 and played Bubs I used to just intiate and then die, thinking I've done my part, but instead of doing this think of their damage as a static bursty amount and consider that you need to spread it out over your team so that everyone can survive. This is also done by standing properly in teamfights, only let SOME spells hit you by standing properly and let the rest of the team absorb the rest.

Positioning is also important for melee characters, as I said previously don't just stand there autoattacking, if they have teammates incoming there's a good chance they could kill you. This is where positioning for melee characters especially comes into play when chasing! 1600s tend to stand in a group, and then the enemys Behe jumps in and boom genocide. DO NOT do this mistake, why would you need to stand so close together? If you're chasing it's near garuanteed that one of you have a stun or even a slow, in this case you don't all need to autoattack! Go to the left and wait for the stun, and if there's a chance for turn around for the other team only autto attack a couple of times before checking and resetting your positioning.

Positioning also comes into effect when ganking, ever tried a game where your team and you just flowed together? You could constantly gank the other team because you always had backup? That was because your team new how to position themselves and play aggresively. Do Not Play Passivily! Not to brag or anything but I'm pretty sure I had a lot higher win % than testi in 1600, purely by playing aggresively and I'm no pro.

Map Awareness:
1600's tend to believe that map awareness is only really needed in lane, and then when they die cuz of their lack of own they blame the lack of wards. Even if they have wards. When I was good I looked at the map multiple times every few seconds! When you're chasing you need to look at the map near 100% of the time, and this is also really important in teamfights, as you can then judge their damage, the incoming damage from their incoming teammates and consider if you should retreat or fight back. Having proper map awareness could give you +100 mmr freely, so consider this.

Pushing:
See this is really important, this is probably why the majority of bad players lose they----yeah, you guessed it! Push at the wrong time! If you're ahead and got a big lead one bad push and a genocide at their tower resets the game to being stale once again. It cannot really be explained when you should push and what not, and it does take experience to learn and comprehend but try and consider these factors; 'How much damage do the other team do', 'How tanky are we', 'How tanky are they', 'What team setup do they have', 'Do they have alot of anti pushing' 'Do we have a lot of pushing' 'Did we win the laning phase to such a degree that they cannot defend their towers, and if they can we genocide them' 'Do we have the regeneration to keep pushing against an anti-push team' 'Do we have someone to tank the tower if needed'.

Item Choices:
This one should actually be obvious, although harder to do in actuality than theory - if the other team has someone like Leg.. you might wanna consider getting some armor. Item choices of course goes much deeper and beyond this, a proper item can easily turn the game around for you and your team but this isn't set in stone and thus I cannot explain it.

The Tanky Issue:
See, the problem with 1600's is that they don't know who to focus in a teamfight and thus you can easily get them to focus Armadon by just staying in front. If you're reading this 'guide' do not fall for this, go for the squishy dps machine Tort in the bagground who does 999999 damage don't go for the tanky hero in front. This is also a good method to win in 1600, just build tanky and stand in front and let them blow all their cooldowns on you, afterwards your team will clean them up easily.

Tunnel Vision:
By this I mean becoming so absorbed in the game and its pwetty colours! That you forget about thinking rationally, map awareness and positioning. This is deadly. Continually think 'Should I be doing this now?' 'Isn't this kinda risky?' Ask yourself questions like these to break out of the zoning.

Conceding Early and Team Composition:
This always make me cringe, so many 1600's concede won games b/c they have no idea of team composition, if you have a mid game team and the other team has an early/late game and you're behind the first 20 min, there's a high % that you can easily make a comeback in around 10 min just from having the right heroes! It's true! Don't concede early, you're just handing the opposing smurf his win instead of forcing him to work for it.

You Have a Brain Use It:
By this I mean thinking rationally and not doing something completely retarded, like defending a tier 2 tower 4v5, doing konger without counterwarding and laning pushing first, or farming in their forrest without having an escape or without vision. Consider the different situations and act accordingly, what's the % that they're all hiding uphill in the shadow? Always assume the worst possible sitaution to embrace you for the coming encounter.

With a little bit of spellchecking and a brushed up layout this is definitely worth some attention. It's the first guide for the 1600 bracket that I've seen and it does have some good points which I'll try to incoporate in my own games.

Nice read. I would add:
Never guess they will concede soon. Too many people throw games because they thought it was won.
Use that! Tell your team to bash each other in ALL chat like if you were falling apart, but help each other in decision making and play together to win the game.

I play only solo and I hover around 1650MMR, quite frankly I think that this is where I belong. I'm guessing that I could go up to 1750 MMR if I had a team of equal individual skills to play with.

The main problem is solo queuing and having to rely on other people. Some times you get a good set of players and people will make good picks and play according to their role. When this happens it's almost a sure win. But most of the times we end up with 3+ carries, or 4 meele, or 2 junglers, etc...

90% of the time I can say the outcome of a game before the first creepwave spawns, just by the picks, lane choices and item choices. Call me pessimist, but I know a lost game when I see one.

One thing I gotta admit though, I don't like to try hard. If we have a bad team comp, people don't ward, and usually fail their lanes I just wanna concede and move on. I know that some of those game you can still win, but it's too much of a mental stress to keep trying while your DS is making Shieldbreaker and NH has codex lv2.

I play only solo and I hover around 1650MMR, quite frankly I think that this is where I belong. I'm guessing that I could go up to 1750 MMR if I had a team of equal individual skills to play with.

The main problem is solo queuing and having to rely on other people. Some times you get a good set of players and people will make good picks and play according to their role. When this happens it's almost a sure win. But most of the times we end up with 3+ carries, or 4 meele, or 2 junglers, etc...

90% of the time I can say the outcome of a game before the first creepwave spawns, just by the picks, lane choices and item choices. Call me pessimist, but I know a lost game when I see one.

One thing I gotta admit though, I don't like to try hard. If we have a bad team comp, people don't ward, and usually fail their lanes I just wanna concede and move on. I know that some of those game you can still win, but it's too much of a mental stress to keep trying while your DS is making Shieldbreaker and NH has codex lv2.

In fact, DS with a Shieldbreaker is a valid build in CM =) (i know, don't play CM) In CM, you have the gold to buy good items (even some luxuries with a support).

It's the same concept of doing nome/ward slither in CM. It's just useless, you need to move on better items to supplement you teams with utility and dps.

But NH with codex is idiot. But a support with some fat items is a valid build IF you don't forget your role =) But in general, it isnt good. But it have some utility =)

Also, this is the basics many people know this even tho they are below the 1700s... I've seen 1400s that play better than 1600s it's simply because:

1- Bad teammates that have no communication or judgement
2- Pre-made teams that fail
3- Smurfs (due to the fact every 1700+ now makes a free account to pwn some "noobs" when having a rough time in their main/just for the fun of it)

There are many factors that play in what mmr you stay in which your own skill is also included -.-

MMr compression. I was like 1770ish b4 it happened, I also moved and got shitty net and havent really played since..

Originally Posted by RunninDaGame

Also, this is the basics many people know this even tho they are below the 1700s... I've seen 1400s that play better than 1600s it's simply because:

1- Bad teammates that have no communication or judgement
2- Pre-made teams that fail
3- Smurfs (due to the fact every 1700+ now makes a free account to pwn some "noobs" when having a rough time in their main/just for the fun of it)

There are many factors that play in what mmr you stay in which your own skill is also included -.-

No. I'm telling you this because you don't know, if you knew you wouldn't be 1600. You are letting events who could win you the game in a sec pass you by, funny how I qued from 1350 to 1730 with only 2 losses. One of them being 3v5 with a scout who was never there and me being Witch Slayer.

When I was near 1800 I was even more arrogant that I am now, and I always cringed when I got a 1600 on my team becuase it's the same **** every time. They think they know everything about the game but the only thing they can do even slightly properly is lasthit and use their spells on the nearest foe. They know nothing of positioning or when to back down and you constantly have to tell them to back. In the 1730+ bracket there never was a problem like that for me, whether you choose to accept this or not you can clearly see a huge difference just by the way they're standing.

MMr compression. I was like 1770ish b4 it happened, I also moved and got shitty net and havent really played since..

Almost everyone in the 1600s bracket was 1700 mmr before compression.
Nice guide, however the title of you're guide calls for provocation as you directly insult everyone, it's not needed to have a name like that, just make it "How to get into the 1700 bracket" or something.

A bit negative tone, or failed humour, which makes it a lot harder to take you seriously. Overall a good 'guide' though. It was short enough to bother reading and actually hit the level of information that's needed. Concise with good points.

A bit negative tone, or failed humour, which makes it a lot harder to take you seriously. Overall a good 'guide' though. It was short enough to bother reading and actually hit the level of information that's needed. Concise with good points.

The Angrytestie remark was fairly lame though.

But true nontheless, Testie is for sure a better player than me but playing too passivily rarely wins games.

And about the negative tone it's to convey the feelings of this being important, and easier to recall.

But true nontheless, Testie is for sure a better player than me but playing too passivily rarely wins games.

Are you really judging one of the best HoN player's way of playing? Man, he gets payed to play with people, you don't. You think you're good enough to judge a proffesional's play style?
Get over yourself.

Are you really judging one of the best HoN player's way of playing? Man, he gets payed to play with people, you don't. You think you're good enough to judge a proffesional's play style?
Get over yourself.

Since when did you have to have 2000 mmr to judge plays? Pretty sure even breakycpk sometimes gets a thing or two right about the game he's casting. Even if you disregard this with your attitude, what about the countless pros who's said this? Will that get through your skull if somebody who's "professional" said that? Or whatabout all the other pros in that bracket who wins alot more than testi and comments and compares his playstyle to their own? I guess in your perspective Testi is so flawless he never does something wrong... Yeah that's pros alright, never room for any improvement =_=.

MMr compression. I was like 1770ish b4 it happened, I also moved and got shitty net and havent really played since..

No. I'm telling you this because you don't know, if you knew you wouldn't be 1600. You are letting events who could win you the game in a sec pass you by, funny how I qued from 1350 to 1730 with only 2 losses. One of them being 3v5 with a scout who was never there and me being Witch Slayer.

When I was near 1800 I was even more arrogant that I am now, and I always cringed when I got a 1600 on my team becuase it's the same **** every time. They think they know everything about the game but the only thing they can do even slightly properly is lasthit and use their spells on the nearest foe. They know nothing of positioning or when to back down and you constantly have to tell them to back. In the 1730+ bracket there never was a problem like that for me, whether you choose to accept this or not you can clearly see a huge difference just by the way they're standing.

I don't know this? Pre-compression I was in the 1770-1780s and I'm still in the 1700s lolz SOLO QUE SUPPORT! In the 1700s people still don't have a clue how to last hit, when and when not to be aggressive as well as warding, and item builds for certain situations... MANY people have been carried to the 1700s atm even thou they don't deserve being in that bracket simply because they don't have the required skill or same way of thinking as a real 1700+ player... But w.e we have all played with different people and no1 plays the same so your ingame experience =/= mine

Are you really judging one of the best HoN player's way of playing? Man, he gets payed to play with people, you don't. You think you're good enough to judge a proffesional's play style?
Get over yourself.

From a logical perspective, angry testie is just a normal hon player like anyone else, except he's on streams and a professional team.

The reason the teams are called "professional teams" is not because they are by any means goods, it just means they play competitively and are sponsored. Testie is not one of the best players in HON. no pro is one of the best players in hon.

The only thing that makes testie good like any other professional player is their teams coordination, it's behind godlike and will stomp any pub especially low tier beyond recognition. This is because they play and practice together with each other no stop, resulting into their teamwork being superior to the normal game of hon.

The simple little fact that people leave out is that these "pro players" are never soloing a single game. they are not invinceable.

Im pretty sure testie or chu can be stomped into existence in a low 1400's match, even if they do take mid and play as carefully as possible. why? because smurf are around not.

pletely shut down anyone. Majority rules in hon, literally, so choose your words carefully before you say someone is the best, and provide evidence. And no im not a hater; it's just logical inferring.